While returning next day to London, he had ample time to think
over what he had been told. Miss Selina Loach had certainly
shut herself up for many years in Rose Cottage, and it seemed
as though she was afraid of being hurt in some way. Perhaps
she even anticipated a violent death. And then Mrs. Octagon
hinted that she knew who had killed her sister. It might not
have been Caranby after all, whom she meant, but one of the
Saul family, as Mrs. Mallow suggested.

"I wonder if it is as my mother thinks," mused Cuthbert,
staring out of the window at the panorama of the landscape
moving swiftly past. "Perhaps Selina did kill Miss Saul, and
shut herself up to avoid being murdered by one of the
relatives. Caranby said that Selina did not go to the
inquest, but pretended she was ill. Then she and her sister
went to the continent for two years, and finally, when they
returned, Selina instead of taking her proper place in society
as Isabella did, shut herself up as a recluse in Rose Cottage.
The Saul family appear to have been a bad lot. I should like
to look up that coining case. I wonder if I dare tell
Jennings."

He was doubtful of the wisdom of doing this. If he told what
he knew, and set Jennings on the track, it might be that a
scandal would arise implicating Mrs. Octagon. Not that
Cuthbert cared much for her, but she was Juliet's mother, and
he wanted to avert any trouble likely to cause the girl pain.
A dozen times on the journey Cuthbert altered his mind. First
he thought he would tell Jennings, then he decided to hold his